Luke Walton

Luke Walton became interested in journalism during his senior year of high school. He got a job was at the local newspaper where his first assignment was covering the high school football game.

Walton attended DePauw University where he joined a dance band. Eventually he transferred to Butler University where he put on a Campus News Broadcast from WGBF on Sunday afternoons. After graduating, he went to Iowa and sold syndicated newspaper material to newspapers in the area. When the depression hit the area, he was unable to continue sales and moved back to Indianapolis.

He began his career in broadcasting as a sports announcer on the radio in 1931 at WGBF in Evansville, Indiana. The president of the station told Walton he was not adapting well to radio. On Thanksgiving, he provided sideline commentary during a local football game between Central and Bosse. After being miserable covering the game in the cold rain, the president told Walton he changed his mind.

"300 Words a Minute" Walton then moved to work at WBOW in Terre Haute where he remained for eight years. By 1941, he was in Indianapolis as sportscaster and salesman for WISH. Walton then took four years off from 1942 to 1946 to serve in the Navy where he was a sports announcer for events intended to raise morale.

Back at WISH after the war, Walton did play-by-play baseball coverage of the Indianapolis Indians from 1948-55 and again in 1963. He worked there for 10 years. For “away” games in the early days he created his vivid descriptions from a station studio using cryptic teletype messages from distant stadiums.

Walton left WISH in 1956 to form his own advertising firm, the Luke Walton Advertising Agency. However, he continued to announce for the annual Indianapolis 500 race on the Indianapolis Speedway Radio Network for 30 years.

Walton, acknowledged as Indiana's "Dean of Sportscasters," died in 1990.

Luzane Draughon

-Information from Indiana Broadcast Pioneers and "In the Public Interest"